8 
ABHA. 
quitted. He employed all his eloquence to prevail on us to return, 
which however we resisted, both on account of the inhospitable 
treatment we had experienced, and because we were well assured 
that his present importunity arose only from his fears of Ras 
Welleta Selasse, and not from a real desire to atone for his former 
neglect. 
The mountain of Geshen was far on our left hand, when we 
made a rapid descent northward into the fine plain of TushalJoo, 
which is fully six miles in length, and about two in breadth. The 
village of Addage, belonging to Kantiba Socinius, overlooks it from 
a rising ground on the right, as Nissom and Menju do on the left. 
It is interspersed with Tombo trees, which in appearance are not 
unlike the mulberry tree. To the north was pointed out to us the 
district of the Sewarre, and the villages of Adowmo and Digge ; 
opposite to the last is another called Ambullah. From Asceriah 
we had been going nearly north-west, on account of the impassable 
mountains to the south ; but we now turned off over a rising 
ground to the south, and, passing Bat'ha, soon reached Abha, the 
residence of the Baharnegash Subhart. We were very cordially 
received by the old man in a small house, built under the brow of 
a projectmg rock, that completely sheltered it from the inclemen- 
cies of the weather. He was seated on a couch surrounded by his 
attendants, and almost enveloped in a long white mantle with a 
red border and fringe. He was small in person, with a face deeply 
marked with the furrows of age. We found here that much more 
attention was paid to form than at Dixan. The mode of salutation 
in use is to present the hand, and afterwards kiss the back of it twice; 
no person is permitted to go into the presence of the Baharnegash 
